Stephen Prince, professor of theatre and cinema in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, has received the 2012 Alumni Award for Excellence in Research.

Sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, the Alumni Award for Excellence in Research is presented annually to as many as two Virginia Tech faculty members who have made outstanding research contributions. Alumni, students, faculty, and staff may nominate candidates. Each recipient is awarded $2,000.

Prince, who joined the Virginia Tech community in 1989, was recognized for his groundbreaking work in cinema studies that has advanced the understanding of film as an aesthetic and social medium. He holds an honorary professorship in film and media at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Prince is the editor of the prize-winning journal Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind. He is a former president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the world’s largest organization of film scholars and academics. In addition to numerous essays focusing on film history, theory, and criticism, Prince has authored or edited 19 books, 17 refereed articles, and 12 book chapters. He was the book review editor for Film Quarterly for 11 years, and he has recorded 13 commentaries appearing on DVDs of films by prominent directors Akira Kurosawa and Sam Peckinpah.

Prince’s recent book, “Firestorm: American Film in the Age of Terrorism” (Columbia University Press 2009), is the first book to examine 9/11 and its aftermath as depicted in film and television. It evaluates the extent to which filmmakers have exploited, explained, understood, and interpreted the terrorist attacks and the war that followed. The book has been reviewed in a number of international periodicals and newspapers, including Choice, which listed it as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2010.

"The range and importance of Stephen’s work is enormous,” said Patricia Raun, head of the Department of Theatre and Cinema. “Virginia Tech's reputation as a significant and comprehensive research institution is enhanced by his extraordinary scholarship. I find all of Stephen’s work to be insightful and surprisingly accessible, even to people unfamiliar with cinematic scholarship.”

Prince received a bachelor's degree and master’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

 

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